Ex-Flagler Hospital employee testifies

RICHARD PRIORStaff Writer

Published Wednesday, October 27, 2004

JACKSONVILLE -- Claims that he threatened to set fires and explosions at Flagler Hospital for revoking his son's medical coverage were misunderstood, a former employee testified Tuesday in his wrongful termination suit against the hospital.

Gregory Craine Sr. said in U.S. District Court that he and a co-worker "could have been overheard" discussing a scene from Burt Reynolds' "The Longest Yard," in which an inmate is killed by manipulation of a light bulb.

"I was not upset with my co-workers," Craine told Robert Harris, one of his two Miami attorneys. "They hadn't done anything to me. They had no power to make no decisions about the situation at hand."

Craine is suing the hospital for forcing him to take indefinite medical leave although he was eager and able to continue his job as a nursing aide transporter in the operating room.

He has also charged that, when he returned from a voluntary two-month medical leave, he was no longer among those eligible to be on call for weekend operations. He said that would have meant a significant loss of pay -- perhaps as much as $300 for one weekend -- if he had not lost his job 11 days after returning from his voluntary leave.

Craine, of St. Augustine, also retained William Brown in the suit filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act and the federal Family Medical Leave Act. The amount of damages has not yet been specified.

Patricia Hill and Benjamin Sharkey of Akerman Senterfit of Jacksonville are defending the hospital.

The trial is before federal Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr.

In his testimony Tuesday, Craine said there had been no complaints about his job performance before he became depressed about his son's medical condition and the inability to pay for his care.

When he returned from his voluntary leave, he said, "I wasn't feeling like myself, but I was able to do my job."

He said he was "upset, angry, frustrated. I was all the things a parent would be who had been lied to by someone he had put a whole lot of confidence in.

"When I needed you, you turned your back on me. If that wasn't enough, you took my job."

He also denied making threatening or intimidating phone calls.

However, Hill said she has audiotapes of Craine, "pretending to be someone else," phoning Tom Craney, the hospital's Human Resources director. The voice charges that one of the defense witnesses had been harassing a female employee, she said.

Hill said he called the Agency for Health Care Administration, saying two employees were working under the influence of drugs.

"The AHCA investigated it, and we went to the judge (Adams), who enjoined him at an evidentiary hearing in September," Hill said.

She added that Craine was ordered to pay attorney fees and costs for bringing the action.

Jayne Moheng, a scheduling secretary for the operating room, testified for the defense and said she had "no problems" working with Craine until she heard two "very loud statements" from him that made her feel "threatened."

One was that placing coins in electrical outlets would "blow the place up," she testified.

The other was his insistence that it would be easy to cause a fire and explosion in the operating room by flipping open the oxygen tanks.

She said she reported the separate observations, made within days of each other, to Sandra Rayburn, former director of operating room services.

On cross-examination, Moheng told Harris that she couldn't be sure when the statements were made, only that it was some time after he was hired in 1998.

She testified that she took both statements for "valid threats" and that her life was in danger. However, she told Harris, she didn't call the police, notify Craney or write the incidents down until after Craine filed his suit.

On March 23, Craine testified, Rayburn led him to a meeting with Craney and Frank Nowicki, who was in charge of benefits for the Human Resources department.

"They told me either take forced medical leave or be fired," he said. "They said I couldn't come back until I find a doctor who said I was 100 percent over the experience with Flagler Hospital and my son's illness."

By his own admission and according to statements by his therapists, Craine became distraught after learning in December 2000 that his son, Gregory Craine Jr., had tested HIV-positive.

He became angry and depressed when he learned that his son had been dropped from the medical insurance he had put him on at the hospital.

Craine said his son was qualified for coverage as a full-time student carrying 15 hours at Florida Community College in Jacksonville. The hospital reportedly was notified that he was only taking six hours.

Moheng, a 25-year employee of the hospital, told Harris that Flagler had paid about $800,000 for the medical payments incurred by her husband, who is now deceased.

"She got $800,000 for her husband," Craine scoffed during a recess. "They wouldn't pay a dime for my son. Could it be the color of my skin?"

In January 2001, Dr. James Gregory Dent, medical director of the psychiatric unit at Flagler, diagnosed Craine with a major depressive disorder. He prescribed medication and a two-month medical leave.

Dent wrote May 6 that Craine could return to work with "no restrictions."

He later went to Dr. Amit Vijapura, a psychiatrist who testified Tuesday that he still treats Craine regularly.

Vijapura said he understood from Craine's medical history, that he was feeling betrayed, depressed and angry. He had thoughts of suicide and "some paranoid feelings about the people around him, people at Flagler Hospital."

Four months after their first session May 1, 2001, Vijapura wrote that Craine was "unable to return to work at his previous job. He was so disturbed he was unable to work at that time."

He was aware that Craine often got up at 4 in the morning to help with his mother's cleaning business.

The trial before an eight-person jury began Monday. Both sides agreed they expected to finish putting on all their witnesses today, in accordance with the firm request by Adams. Whether there will be sufficient time for closing statements before Thursday morning is unclear.